‘The question of whether the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) can be used to deal with Bitcoins¹ and electronic currencies has been the subject of some speculation by specialist practitioners recently. In my view it can be utilised, but it is not ideal. I will not deal with the technical difficulties in finding bitcoin accounts; what I will concentrate on in this article is finding the correct legal tools to recover the assets and what other options are available when it does not work.’

‘Service providers that help other businesses to pool information from different payment accounts on behalf of customers will not be subject to regulation under new UK payment services laws if they do not deliver the aggregated data to the customer themselves, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed.’

‘More than a third of organisations that operate critical national infrastructure in the UK (39%) have not implemented the UK government’s ’10 steps’ guidance on managing cyber risks, according to a provider of cybersecurity services.’

‘In addition to the widely-reported WannaCry virus, institutions across the globe were impacted in June 2017 by a second ransomware attack. Apparently introduced via an innocuous-looking tax software product, NotPetya spread rapidly through approximately 12 countries including the UK.’

‘The “internet has not alone changed our lives but it has also changed our vocabulary. A tablet is no longer made of stone, a bit does not help guide a horse and a cookie is more likely to affect your privacy than alleviate the pangs of hunger between meals!” A lengthy Christmas cracker joke? No, the observations – in excellent ‘Dad-joke’ style – of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in CG v Facebook Ireland Ltd & McCloskey (MOR10142) (Morgan LCJ, Gillen & Weatherup LJJ) at [54].’

‘The UK government has released a National Cybersecurity Strategy for the next five years. It will always be a difficult enterprise to try to predict changes to the threat landscape for the digital economy, even over as short a time span as five years. But there is clearly a pressing need here with cyberattacks regularly in the news. A recent example was an attack on a group of hospitals that put patients at risk for several days.’

‘Getting cyber security right is not easy. Even the largest organisations can find themselves in difficulties – as the recent high-profile problems encountered by Yahoo and TalkTalk show. But it is especially challenging for smaller organisations without the headcount or budget to cover every angle in detail. What should you do to give your organisation the best chance of success?’

‘Amazon has been found guilty of shipping dangerous goods by air. The items included lithium-ion batteries and flammable aerosols, which were flown in and out of the UK between January 2014 and June 2015.’

‘Financial services companies operating in the UK can make use of cloud-based services without falling foul of regulatory obligations, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said. However, firms may be disappointed that some of the guidance is not more specific or prescriptive in some areas, an expert has said.’

‘Bet365, one of the internet’s biggest bookmakers, is facing legal action from a customer over its failure to transfer a £54,000 balance to her bank account despite repeated requests over a period of months. While refusing to release the backer’s winnings on a series of horse racing bets, Bet365 also told her that she would be restricted to a maximum stake of £1 if she wished to bet with the balance but was welcome to gamble as much as she wished on gaming products, which have a guaranteed margin for the operator.’

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